


He Hears Me

by FuchsiaPaper



Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Burt listens to Sven, Fluff, M/M, Rants, Valiant Hero Ending | VH (Henry Stickmin), and Sven is a rambling boi, but the burn becomes literal, just a real quick blurb, slowburn, smh, why am i like this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28007454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuchsiaPaper/pseuds/FuchsiaPaper
Summary: Despite what many would assume, Burt does listen.And the ever-rambling Sven appreciated it. Till the very end.
Relationships: Burt Curtis & Sven Svensson, Burt Curtis/Sven Svensson
Comments: 10
Kudos: 45





	He Hears Me

**Author's Note:**

> i rlly dunno uhhh im doin this bc im procrastinating hhh  
> also sven and his monologuing tendencies give me life skksk

Contrary to popular belief in the Toppat Clan, Burt Curtis does listen.

Now that may seem improbable, considering how he constantly keeps his headset on and appears to divulge no real interest into any given conversation, ever.

But Sven can tell you otherwise!

No really, he swears--don't roll your eyes Carol.

He could tell after he begrudgingly took on the hopefully temporary spot of being the Toppat leader, after seeing no one of any real passion for the clan step up.  
Sven was sure there could've been more contenders had the Airship division not gotten arrested, but then they wouldn't be having this problem of both their main bosses being out of the picture in the first place.

Either way, he just had to rant about the literal mountains of paperwork to somebody--was Copperbottom _allergic_ to alphabetization?--and that job fell to Burt. As the one in charge of communications and sending out announcements to all the different divisions or individual members, the two had to converse frequently.  
And oh did Sven converse.

"..hours, hours it took me! The old chief has my respect and all, but my god if his filing system doesn't make me want to jump off a cliff. And that's not all-" Sven slipped into another one of his tirades after dropping off what announcements had to be made that day to Burt.

Watching whilst swirling a mug of coffee, he merely watched Sven go on about the wretched coffee machine being broken for the third time this week, and wordlessly got up.

"-and it was completely watered down, so _again_ I had to.. huh?" Burt offered his cup, still steaming, and rose a brow when Sven just stared at it. "Oh, uh. Thank you."  
  
He wasn't really used to people responding to any of his ramblings, and he tried to not take offense to it because, well, he understood. They were aimless and long and he'd honestly keep going for an hour without interruption. But.. it was still nice to have them be acknowledged, engaged with even.

The next time they had to speak at length about the rocket plans, Sven just returned from a long meeting concerning the security of their main base. A lot of members had expressed concerns about how noticeable their rocketship was becoming as they finished construction, but it was already set in the Dogobogo jungle from the start, so there wasn't much he could do about that.

And he tried, really, to not swamp Burt with his complaints or commentary. But then he asked, "So how'd the meeting go?" and there was no stopping him after that.

A full forty minutes of admittedly relieving ranting later, he figured he should apologize.

"Hey, sorry about that. I uh, like to monologue a lot."

"I know."

"Oh. Err.."

"I don't mind."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Huh." Sven scratched his head. "Well, okay then."

"Here's some water."

And that pretty much summed up their interactions during construction.  
  
...Except for a few times he may or may not have sought him out in the cafeteria.  
Or commed him once or twice in the middle of the night.  
Or--okay, so they spoke some more outside of work now and again.

 _So what?_ Sven thought in rebuttal to.. himself. _He doesn't mind it, he said so._

Plus, it's not everyday you find someone to finally listen to your frustrations like some therapy wall. Might as well, right?

Then the day of the launch came.

Everything went smoothly, the rocket satellite was established in space, and it would be smooth waters from here on out.  
All of his hard work in organizing the operation paid off, and he felt like celebrating.

Well, they did already celebrate technically. Had a whole party after everything was put in place and they accomplished stable orbit. But he still felt like he needed to do something more. He wasn't sure of what exactly, and couldn't rest till he found it.

At near midnight--though, you couldn't ever really tell, it was always dark out--he spotted the familiar sight of a bludgeoned top hat and rust colored headphones.  
Standing at one of the larger panes of glass in a common hallway, staring at the stars.

"Chief." He acknowledged, without looking away. Sven looked out too, trying to find what he was so fixated on.

"Why aren't you asleep? Or blacked out like everybody else?" Someone had _really_ overdone it with the beer.

"Can't sleep. Didn't feel like drinking tonight."

"Aren't you happy we finally did it?" Sven gestured to the infinite chasm before them. "We're in space! Far from any legal interference."

Burt nodded. "Oh yeah. This is gonna make the Toppat Clan unstoppable." Monotonous as always. Sven almost quirked a smile.

"Okay.. so why are you here all alone?"

Burt finally flicked his eyes to Sven, galaxies still fading from the pupils. "It doesn't really matter."

Neither did his compulsive call about cats a few weeks ago, _but you still remember all that, don't you?_

"Cleo."

When Sven left it at that, he could spot Burt's head twitch toward him from the silence, out the corner of his eye.

"..The black cat? What about her."

_Knew it._

"Just tell me what's going on in that hat of yours already."

He thought he saw Burt frown for a millisecond, but it was wiped clean when he turned to him, a curious expression offered.

"Um.." He quickly looked to the stars again. "Was just thinking. About space and stuff."

After all the times Burt helped lend a ear to him, Sven took part as the quiet listener for once and let Burt take charge.  
  


Murmured words, the occasional "mhm" from Sven, fingers briefly brushing against each other when Burt's voice dipped lower.

  
By the end of it all, they bid the other a good night and went to their respective quarters. And Sven.  
Sven was left.. intrigued. Not sure what for. But he felt it nevertheless.

And he kept feeling it during all of their ongoing encounters, though they were getting rather sparse as of late because of their booming activity.  
Raids have been more successful than ever now that any fleeing member could get beamed up in a blink of an eye. After their latest goods got shipped, a big safe full of golden doubloons, Sven decided drop by the communications center.

"Chief?" Burt swiveled in his chair.

He waved. "You can just call me Sven you know."

"Eeh, I dunno."

"Hm? Why not?"

"Oh, well.. I don't want it to seem like you're picking favorites or anything."

"Is it a bad thing if I do?"

Burt opened and closed his mouth.

"You still don't have a Right Hand yet."

Sven blinked. "I.. completely forgot. Everything got so busy with the orbital station."

"There are still several good candidates you could choose from, but I understand if you'd want to wait longer."

"Um, why don't you become my Right Hand Man?"

Burt stiffened. "..what?"

"Yeah, you can be my Right Hand Man. Seems like a good idea to me. You're almost always involved our main board meetings anyway, and I think you'd be-"

"Sir." Sven stopped, startled.  
Typically, Burt would wait for a pause in whatever tirade Sven took up on (no matter how long) and then interject with either a polite cough or an action, like offering some biscuits, or adjusting his hat, or leaning in to give an almost kiss-  
"I don't.." Burt sighed, turning back to view his computer. "I don't know."

"What... do you mean?"

"I just, am okay with where I'm at now." He held onto his headphones. "I'm not sure if we.. I'm-"

"No. That is fine."

"Sven-"

"Chief."

Another sigh. "Alright chief. Whatever you say."

He left the office, and didn't stop walking until his feet began to get sore. He retired to his office, slumping into the cushiony chair. He let the waves of tiredness wash over, before letting himself groan.

Sven knew he was too curt at the end of all that. He should've apologized, but...

Being someone's Right Hand is a big deal, at least in the Toppat Clan. It's not necessary, but the leader and their Right Hand often were notoriously close. They had to work together seamlessly, in blueprints or in battle. And he...

He didn't know.

All he knew was that he should probably stop by again later on.  
  
But before he could even start planning out on how it should go, the entire orbital station lurched violently, and Sven toppled to the carpet.

**"Warning! Critical damage to core."**

What.

**"Please evacuate immediately."**

What the fuck.

Stumbling through the blinking halls while the infrastructure fell apart all took a decent effort, but at some point someone shoved him along a crowd to a luxury escape pod, so there was that.

Once seated inside, away from the shrieking red lights and alarms, he could finally catch his breath.

Only to lose it again.

"Burt." He turned back on his communicator. "Burt where are you."

"..."

He had better gotten in a pod by now. The ship was about to explode and-

"Chief?"

Sven gulped. The incoming background noise did not sound like a safe and silent shuttle.

"Yes, tell me where you are right now."

"Uhm.." Some shuffling. A shatter. "Oh man, that was my favorite mug."

"Burt!"

"Okay- I'm er, I'm a little stuck. In the comms room."

No.

"What!"

"Yeah uh, there's some rubble outside the door. Can't budge it."

_No._

"You're kidding."

"I wouldn't kid about this chief-"

"Don't call me that, not anymore. Burt, please, I'm so sorry about earlier--it was very unprofessional of me. I.. I don't know why I asked really, but I did and I made-"

"Sven." He halted immediately, voice caught in his throat like a bad flu. He said his name so softly, had the noises on Burt's end been any louder, he probably wouldn't have heard it.  
"It's alright. Okay? I hear you."

He dropped the communicator as the pod shot out into space, trajectory set to Earth. Ahnoldt quickly picked it up and passed it to Sven with an unusually mellow face.

"Burt. Burt answer me, come on."

Static.

"Burt! Please, you hear me don't you?"

Static again, but with some pauses in between. Then his voice. "I do."

Sven looked up, just in time to see the escape pod's little window fill up with bright fire. Stock still for all but two seconds, he rushed to the window and pounded on it. He knew it would spell death for him and the five other elite toppats there, plus the glass was too thick regardless, but he wanted to break it.

He wanted to break everything in sight. But he couldn't. He couldn't even scream or shout or feel his face. Couldn't ever hear Burt's stupidly bored drawl again. Couldn't try and figure out when he meant by all the gazes, the lingering fingers, that small million dollar smile he'd show him sometimes, only him, rarer than the finest diamonds worldwide.

Hands consoled his arms, ushered him to sit back again but hunched over, eyes covered even though they were dry. He didn't care. Couldn't. And when they touchdowned back to solid soil, he was the first to exit out.

"Chief, we-"

"Find who did this."

"Sorry?"

"Find out who caused this to happen."

"I.. I'm not sure if-"

 _"Find. Them."_  
Whatever toppat he was just speaking to shrank back, and nodded. And frankly, Sven didn't even know if there was a person responsible for that sudden catastrophe. And if there was, the chances of them still being alive was slim to none.

But if they were, somehow, alive...  
  
He'll make sure that changes.

**Author's Note:**

> lmaoo this was supposed to be cute, short, and fluffy. my brain just automatically adds angst to everything smh
> 
> also, might wanna continue this in another work as a series. just sven being pissed as all heck at henry or smt lol


End file.
